How long do you keep trying to get baby to nap?

[punk_pig]

I know my baby is tired. I know she feels happier when she has napped, but how long do I keep going trying to get her to nap? Till the nap was supposed to be over, till she actually does sleep, till the next feed time, what?

It has been an hour now and she's pretty upset at this point but I feel if I give up and play with her she isn't just going to be tired from not napping but also ratty from having screamed for so long too. She is in the cot in front of me frantically rubbing her eyes and screaming.

She's only five months so I'm not too obsessed with self settling but she doesn't even settle being held by me - hence why I've put her down as it made no difference but was killing my back.

Any thoughts?

 

[CaptainMummy]

when my LO gets overtired it can be hard to get her to settle. She falls asleep with a dummy (which is the only time she takes one, phew!), but it can take 15 minutes of dummy in, dmmy out, with screaming in between. Also, sometimes it helps giving her a bit of a bottle and then as soon as she taes the dummy, she drops offstraight away.

(I dont know if you use a soother?)

 

[KellyC75]

When its naptime for my LO ~ I close the curtains, give her a dummy & her bunny/comforter She may fuss for a minute, but once she is comfy, she has a lovely nap

Good luck

 

[bimbojo]

i also use the dummy to symbolise nap time. the longest i have gone is thirty minutes of dummy in/out with screaming and wriggling in between. if he gets to worked up i will calm him down completely by walking around or playing a quiiet game and then start again once he is calm. luckily doesn't happen very often but the grumbling in trying to get him to nap is often easier than trying to settle him over tired at bed time. do you have a sling. my lo will always fall asleep in it when tired.

 

[kmac625]

Clara was a horrible napper until she hit 9 months, and now suddenly she generally goes down relatively hassle free. I used to give up after about an hour if she wouldn't go down. I'd play with her, feed her and then try again. Sometimes I'd take her for a walk in the stroller and that would do the trick (but this was over the winter so the weather didn't usually cooperate with me on this). On our good days I was getting two half hour naps out of her. All I can suggest is keep trying and remember that eventually she'll become a better napper. Some babies just take longer than others to realize that sleep is good.

 

[Natsku]

I usually keep trying til she falls asleep but will walk her around for a while on just let her sit on my lap for a while in between attempts.

 

[snowy-willow]

we keep trying until she goes to sleep. OH and I tend to tag team it though.

We find lying on our bed with her works the best at getting her to sleep.

 

[mylittlebubs]

when Lincoln was a baby i used to hold him and rocked him until he fell asleep.Sometimes it took me half an hour up to an hour,and i let him sleep as much as he needed

 

[punk_pig]

when Lincoln was a baby i used to hold him and rocked him until he fell asleep.Sometimes it took me half an hour up to an hour,and i let him sleep as much as he needed

This is what I have been doing but recently she has either screamed when I started to do it (like she knows I'm trying to get her to sleep) or laughed at me like the rocking is a fun game. I'm also getting a really bad back from it as well to the point where I picked up LO the other day and wasn't sure I could fully straighten up, thought I was going to be stuck half crouched over!

She has never really taken to a dummy, don't know if it is just that they don't compare to boobies or what? I can sometimes get her to sleep in the sling but sometimes she just gets a glazed expression for hours on end rather than actually sleeping. Depending on what we are doing she sometimes sleeps in the car, pram, sling, cot, bouncy chair or on me. I just really wanted to get some stuff done today and it just never happened.

 

[welshmummy2be]

when my little girl is sleepy an refuses i fight her all the way, i usually get her to settle herself to sleep due to the fact that she was in neonatal and was used to this by the time i got her home...if she does have a random day of fighting her sleep tho i usually end up massaging her in lavander baby cream, wrapping herup in her fluffly blanket and playing her music seahorse thingy lol it usually works in the end (if she falls asleep just before shes due a feed i leave her till she wakes if she's due a feed before she falls asleep i give her a bottle and rock her)

 

[punk_pig]

I can't use lavender lotion as LO has excema and can only massage her when she is already in a fairly calm state!

I was told by HV that there are more sleep issues when they are breastfed but she didn't advise me further!!

 

[hb1]

Ollie goes to sleep on the boob but if he is fighting it i stoke his forehead and the bridge of his nose in downward strokes - it either sends him off or puts him in the right frame of mind

 

[Farie]

It takes anything from 2min to 40!
I swaddle tightly, rock and sway for a few mins, dummie in then she goes down with her blankie

Yesterday she fell asleep straight away, today its taken 30 mins of going back in, cuddling, re-swaddling and now shes asleep, but she is teething so rather unsettled

If we dont have the swaddle and white noise we dont sleep

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I think when Ruby was a baby I'd try for an hour then go downstairs for a bit, then try again. If it really wasn't happening I'd take her out in the car.

 

[Pixxie]

Will she not sleep on the boob? If LO is that tired I just let her sleep on me and try to put her down properly for the next nap. Or maybe a trip in the pram would help? xxx

 

[punk_pig]

Will she not sleep on the boob? If LO is that tired I just let her sleep on me and try to put her down properly for the next nap. Or maybe a trip in the pram would help? xxx

Sometimes she will, other times she just squirms and bats at her eyes. Today she started getting grumps at about 10am but as she'd been unsettled during her first feed I offered boob again and she started to nap quite quickly but I made the mistake of trying to move within a few minutes and she woke up again all smiles and would not go back to her nap. So we went for a pram ride during which she looked at everything going on around her and didn't look sleepy at all. Back at the house at 12 I fed her again and she was still unsettled so moved in to the dark bedroom to feed and she is currently dream feeding. However yesterday trying to feed her in the dark bedroom was what started off the screaming.

So she is kinda sleeping and it is 5hrs since she woke up!

also feeding her to sleep is causing wind issues! We've also had the I'm about to fall asleep - oh non wait I've got hiccups to keep me awake for hours instead.